Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

They have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you’ll be made welcome. Just say, “are you green?” and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there. It’s a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It’s a force for the good and we’d like to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

If there is no Green Drinks near you, you might want to set up a Green Drinks in your City. Reach out iin your local area to create some create some face-to-face conversations and conncetions, everything doesn’t have to be online.

The first example of a green television commercial is a semi creative animated TV spot produced as the result of a major integrated media campaign. In this campaign–which first aired in 2007–Mekanism (a production studio housing film, animation and interactive content creators) teamed up with Venables Bell & Partners to help PG&E and its San Francisco customers showcase ways to come to grips with climate change and environmental stewardship. The commercial ends with the line: “CFL bulbs use one-third the energy of standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.” The central focus of this ad campaign is: “Let’s Green This City“. This website is an online green guide to help individuals identify ways to support the environment. The goal of the Let’s Green This City campaign is to help San Francisco “become the greenest city in the nation”. To wrap this one up – fire your marketing people!

The next green commercial is from Chevrolet and is part of the Chevy environmental campaign for Live Earth. This ad states that, “Finally the environment and your daily commute have something they can agree on.” The 30-second spot ends with the line, “Do More. Use Less.” I would have to say this is an example of what not to do for a commercial.

The next green commercial of note is Bosch’s so-called “Deer spot“. This commercial shows a deer wandering towards an ultra-quiet Bosch Nexxt(R) Washer in a forest. This commercial claims that Bosch washers are not only “the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly. They’re also the quietest.” Just putting in nautre and animals doesn’t mean it’s green!

Another Bosch commercial also utilizes the green theme – this time to advertise its dishwasher. In Bosch’s “Owl spot“, this advertiser uses an Eagle Owl – the quietest bird in flight – to again make its point: that Bosch dishwashers are not only “the most energy efficient and environmentally friendly. They’re also the quietest”. This is puts the concept of creativitiy to the limits – man this is dumb!

Another non-creative offering is a colorfully animated and environmentally oriented commercial from Honda for its diesel engines:

I don’t know if you found any of these entertaining or captivating but for myself, I’m sitting here wondering who the hell got paid to make these crappy videos. Know wonder so many people still refuse to go green. If you have a video that you think is the best of green commercials post a link and I’ll put it up. Or if you know of others that are horrible send those over as well.

Well let’s take a look at the Prius. Prius owners and many throughout the green industry have praised Toyota’s efforts to make drivers more effective in their driving habits. This want and need for real-time data has trickled down into the housing market where homeowners want to have the same real-time interaction with their homes as they would with a Prius. This is a very important goal and will be coming in the future. J .ust look at the data feeds that we’ve set up with Seattle City Lights and some of the other energy providers with Microsoft Hohm. However are we jumping ahead of ourselves, are we looking for instant gratification rather than addressing the real issues?

So here is where the question lies. Even through the Prius effect makes the driver very effective, is the car itself as efficient as it could be? Are homeowners wanting real-time monitoring for instant gratification rather than taking the time and money to make their home as efficient as possible? A person can be effective as much as they want, but if they’re not efficient, it becomes a self-defeating process. For example if I have a house that isn’t insulated, has poor windows and doors, and I haven’t changed the lights out to more efficient lights, no matter how effective I am, my home will not be running at optimal levels. Environmental education should address the need for the balance of efficiency and effectiveness. Alone, neither one is a silver bullet,: however if homeowners, car manufactures, agriculture and much more could find this balance within their ecosystem, we could see massive changes in how we consume energy.

So take another look at Microsoft hohm and ask the question: Is my house as efficient as it can be? So when the time comes where the Prius effect enters your home, you’ve already made sure that your efforts to be effective is not being held back by your home;s efficiency.